Retraining cats - an update

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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In case you’re interested, here’s an update to this thread

Mr. Jones and I were in NY for a week and the cats were home with my daughter. They didn’t have VJ to pick on, no sirree. We had 6 whole days of uninterrupted sleep (except that the bed my in-laws’ house is damned uncomfortable).

I’m told by my daughter that during this time the cats were fed in the evening per the new regime. I had hopes that maybe, just maybe, I’d be able to sleep.

Of course that was not the case. The morning after my return, this past Saturday to be exact, Elvin (the little dear) decided that time to wake up was 4:30 am. I opened the bedroom door and gave him a couple of healthy shots with the water bottle and he took off. I went back to bed and thankfully fell right to sleep.

Until 5:15 am (and this is on a Saturday, it’s just plain wrong I tell you) when Elvin (the little darling) decided that he needed to try and rouse me once again. This time I tossed him into the computer room until I was ready to get up. I’m really beginning to resent this waking up early shit.

Sunday he waited until a little later, 6:30 which wouldn’t have been so bad on a work day but we had a gig Saturday night and didn’t get to bed until after 3:00. Once again I tried the squirt bottle and once again he came back for more after about 45 minutes. Into the room he went.

This morning? 5:30 am. I tried to ignore him. This time he was beating on the door so hard that it woke up my daughter (ever try to wake an 18 year old, it’s next to impossible) she threw him in the other room.

I’m not having a good feeling about this. I’m considering rebuilding the door barricade that he tore up. I need to visit the fabric store and try and find something more indestructible than what I got before.

Cats, can’t live with 'em and they don’t really taste as much like chicken as you’d want.

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Wow, 66 views and no replies. Does no one care? I’m middle aged! This is my beauty sleep we’re talking about.

Oh well, I guess it really was mundane and pointless. Carry on.

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Get rid of them. Local animal control will take them. There might be a small fee involved.

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I didn’t write in the original thread, but since you’re feeling neglected there there now… I’ll offer what might be an unacceptable solution, but one which worked for me.

When I was a teen, we had three cats. An older female, a middle aged male, and a younger male. All siamese. Mom fed the beasts at 5:30 am every day. I had no clue because I was sleeping then, what did I know?

So they went on vacation for the first time leaving me alone.

First morning, 5:30 am, the old female jumps on my bed and starts pawing politely at the covers. Aww, cute kitty. She was mine, and slept with me all night so I thought she was just being friendly. After a minute she settled for some nice petting and sat next to me. Smart enough to figure I wouldn’t sleep forever and when I got up to feed them she’d know.

Minute later, the middle aged male jumps up and yells. Now this cat weighed about 25 pounds, and I mentioned the siamese part right? So you paid attention to him. Unless you’re me, 17 and asleep. He got a little insistent, walking up and down my chest, yelling at me but I smacked him on the nose a few times and he settled at my feet.

Next up, the whippersnapper. He does the yelling and pawing, and I responded with the smacking. He tries again and I gently push him over the side of the bed. He walks to the bedroom door and screams bloody murder. I ignore him, just knowing this will all go away and I can go back to sleep. I rolled over, and felt the whippersnapper jump back on the bed and stand on my back. I inform him what a poor choice of activities this was, but I am ignored. He stands there yelling. We continue this dance a moment when he upps the ante by biting a chunk of my ear.

In one swift movement, I roll over knocking the old lady against the wall, tangling the fat one in the covers so he hits the floor on his side, and swat the whippersnapper across the room making him hit the wall and slide down like your best Sylvester cartoon.

I rolled back over and from that morning on, they all waited patiently until my ass got out of bed and was ready to feed them.

YMMV

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Continue with the water treatment. It may take a couple or 3 days, but it will eventually work. We had this problem with a cat that used to believe that he NEEEEEDed to get into my daughter’s room in the middle of the night. Cat was very persistent. (I was actually somewhat amused because this is the daughter who used to scream at 2 a.m. until she was over 2 years old, but that’s another story.)

I told her to keep a cup of water handy and splash it on kitty when he woke her up. The first night, it made him go away for the rest of the night. The second night, he ran away as soon as she opened the door and he saw the water cup. The third night was as the second. After that, he stopped and never repeated the behavior. It just took him 3 nights to learn that if you yell and scratch at that particular door, you get wet.

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Why don’t you lock the cat in his “bedroom” before you go to bed? A spare room out of ear shot. Make sure he has access to food, water, and a litter box. When you get up in the morning, let him out.

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Unregistered Bull That’s probably the best solution, but I feel responsible. I adopted the little bastard and now I’m stuck with him. Really, I should have left him in the parking lot where we found him. He was probably very happy there.

mr bus guy Elvin doesn’t seem to be affected by harsh treatment. He’s persistant and mostly unphased by being tossed off the bed. (thanks for the sympathy, btw. I know this situation is entirely my fault but it’s nice to think that someone cares)

MLS Thanks for the advice. I will continue with the morning squirt down.

This morning he woke me up at 6:10 which was only 5 minutes before the alarm. I didn’t actually get out of bed until 6:30 but I just ignored him during that time.

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The key to training a cat is absolute concistency. Cats play the numbers game – if you do not punish them (with something they hate) each and every time, they keep thinking about that 1% chance they might get what they want.

Each and every time they try to wake you up you must soak them (or whatever they hate, I’ve heard rattling a can of pennies works on some – in my youth I had a cat that lived in mortal fear of the sound of a plastic grocery bag being rattled) . Just ignoring the bahavior won’t cut it at this point in the training process.

When the cat knocks at your door, squirt him. When he comes back, squirt him again. Repeat this as long as is necessary. Up the ante by dumping full cups of water on them, if they aren’t impressed by squirt bottles. I would give it a minimum of one full week of dedicated retraining before you conclude that it’s not having an effect.

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Oh no! I’m sorry that retraining hasn’t worked for you velvetjones. I’ve actually had pretty good luck with my guys. (In case anyone else is wondering what I am referring to, I mentioned similar problems with my cats in the thread that VJ linked in the OP.)

It took a week of feeding them AFTER I got back from the gym instead of before I went to the gym, but they haven’t cried at 5:20 a.m. in about a week now. They’re very quiet until I get up and then I just pat them on my way out the door to the gym. They seem to like the attention and accept that that’s all they’re going to get until I get back. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it stays this way!

Good luck with your guy. No suggestions other than the consistency that someone else mentioned.

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**Duct Tape! **

Oh!.. re-training… nevermind then.

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Long Time First Time The problem with locking the offending kitty (it really is just one of the three who’s causing problems) in the other room is that the other room is just across the hall from my room. 1000 Sq Ft condo. Not lots of space. If he’s locked in there all night he starts launching a full on bodily attack on the door that is even more annoying and noisy than his regular routine.

Hello Again That’s good advice. I’m going to really work on the consistency thing. I’m going to get my daughter involved too since lately his antics have been waking her up. Time to deploy another squirt bottle.

I’ve tried the noise thing. While a can full of coins scares the living shit out of my other two cats Elvin (the little dear) just looks at me with an expression that says “why are you shaking that can full of coins at me, are you nuts?”

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5:28 this morning it started, scritch, scratch on the floor and I got up immediately, opened the door and gave him a good healthy squirt with the water bottle.

Unfortunately, the alarm was set this morning for 6:00 and I never really got back to sleep.

Really, I’m somewhat grateful that he woke me up because I was having a really horrific nightmare at the time.

So, I’m going to let this thread go for a week or so. If the retraining actually works I’ll let you know.

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I know I said I’d update in a week or so but Elvin (the little fucke…um…dear) woke me up four times this morning. First time it was 3 am. I opened the door and squirted him and he took off. Back to bed with me.

Next time it was around 5:00 once again, open door and squirt except that in my somnambulistic state I squirted myself first leaving him plenty of time to run away :smack: I ran into the living room and squirted him there and returned to bed grumbling. (too much wine last night so I’m also nursing a hangover)

6:00 he’s at it again only this time he’s scratching and crying. I’m thinking what the f$%k is wrong with the little bastard but I squirt him again.

I can’t get back to sleep this time. Thanks Elvin. I stay in bed trying to will myself to fall back to sleep. No can do. Finally, he scratches again at around 6:45. I get up, turn off the alarm so Mr. Jones can sleep in and squirt Elvin as I exit the bedroom. He’s all over me and I can’t figure out what he wants. There’s food in the bowl and water then I realize, no other cats. Where are they?

Locked in my daughter’s room. The door to her room must have swung shut last night trapping Snowy and Fanny inside. Elvin woke me up repeatedly to let me know he was lonely :rolleyes:

And now Snowy just threw up on the kitchen floor.

Really, an ad in the paper that says “free to good home” is starting to look appealing but maybe I’m just grumpy because I have a hangover. They really are sweet little kitties, really, and I love then dearly, really, I do, and I’m going to keep telling myself that until I believe it.

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And my daughter just discovered that Snowy, stressed out over being trapped in the room all night, relieved herself on her bed (my daughter stayed at a friend’s house last night) There’s a litter box in my daughter’s room but apparently that wasn’t good enough.

Can’t take the bedspread to the drycleaner because it has cat pee on it and they won’t dry clean it so it’s off to the laundrymat where they have the industrial size washers that will clean it for about $10.

Cats, you know I love 'em.

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I know, I know, I said a week and here I am giving you daily updates.

I’m just checking in to say that…

I think it worked!

Elvin, for the first time since we got him, did not scratch on the bedroom door and wake me up this morning. I slept until the alarm went off for the first time in a very long time.

I think the squirt bottle deterent has worked.

Thanks to all who offered suggestions and especially to Hello Again for encouraging me to be consistent and persistent.

I’m finally getting my much needed beauty sleep and I feel prettier already :slight_smile:

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:slight_smile: Glad to be of service. In training any animal I can’t stress enough how important consistency is. I work with horses (cats are just a sideline) and 90% of the problems I see boil down to a lack of consistency from the handler. Animals can’t understand the reasoning we use to create “exceptions.” But they can very well understand cause and effect when it is presented to them clearly and with consistent repetition.

Keep it up! As someone who loves her sleep I am very sympathetic to your problem.

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I just found this thread and wanted to add my $.02

Hello Again has it right, fer sher. When I had 3 cats it was a pain to sleep all night as they would each wake me as they got hungry in the early a.m. As I am a chronic insomniac, this was terrible for me.

I eventually set them a bedtime of 10pm and each night I would announce “BEDTIME!” and keep repeating that one word as I herded them to the utility room where they had little fleece houses to sleep in as well as water, food, litterbox. In less than a month there was no herding at all. My announcement of BEDTIME was enough to get them up and headed into their room.

This worked great until my beloved Mao passed away a couple of months ago. Now that it’s just Lucky (the one-eared, one-fanged deaf black cat!) and me, I give him free rein of the house. He was too sullen and lonely looking when I tried to send him to bed alone, and he’s been great about not waking me.

You have to be consistent and persistent, but you can teach cats lots of things.